Infatuation
by doremimamu
Summary: She wonders why he always so cold and aloof when it comes to her... Throw in alcohol and game 7-minutes-in-heaven, it might make a honest man out of himself.
1. Chapter 1

Attack on Titan © Isayama Hajime

Her every female friend was right. They figured her out to be late bloomer based on her petite frame. No wonder she hadn't had her period yet. Krista blamed it on her innocence. Maybe if she were more daring, acting more grown up, she would have gotten it by now.

So she had tried that little episode with Armin. During that nauseous game of 7-minutes-in-heaven (with more than half of drunken participants), she had agreed to get inside the closet with the gentle nature boy.

Every male trainee grumbled, jealous of how lucky Armin got. Except for Eren. That one person is always ambiguous, at best, toward her. He tolerates her presence but unwilling to make more contact. Even to this day he never got involved directly with her. That's why she couldn't help but to think that he avoiding her on purpose. And to tell the truth, this attitude of his hurt her somehow, though she had no idea why.

She silently watched him unusually cheerful under the alcohol influence. She wondered briefly, what would his reaction had she chosen him over Armin to get into the dark closet…

He turned his head away when Connie called blond boy's name. Armin left the table unwillingly as he gave him a push with a forced smile plastered on his face. That smile was unreadable… cold and hard…

"You know the rule of the game, don't you, Armin?" Franz asked.

"How could he not?" Reiner sulked.

Thomas laughed, "Well… It looks like he never got any experience with girls before. It's better if we explain."

"Ha.. ha… Please do," the nervous blond stuttered, eyeing Krista in wonder, how she unexpectedly picked him in the first place.

"It's simple, really. You go to the closet and during the seven minutes course, you are free to do whatever you want to do with the girl."

"But… but... We are barely legal!" Armin panicked, looking at Krista again in disbelief. Behind her, Ymir shot him a dirty look.

"Reiner put his big hand on Armin's shoulder. "Relax. You are such gentleman, Armin. You will not do anything rash without the lady's consent..." He put more pressure on Armin's shoulder as if to make a point. "Don't you, Armin?"

"Come on, come on. It's a fair game and we don't have all day," cut Franz fast. "Now get into the closet!"

Armin was about to bolt, but in the end was getting shoved to the closet forcefully. Krista began to feel bad for him, regretting her choice to get him involved.

Once the closet was locked, she could hear the crowd cheered. Her heart thumped so loud. The place was too narrow that they had no choice but to move closer to one another.

The first minute was eerily silent. Nobody made a move and they listened to each other's breath. His knees were touching hers.

"Sorry…" he whispered, trying to move his knees to no avail./p

"It's okay. It's impossible to move since there is barely no space," she tried to keep her voice bright despite her nervousness.

"It is a very risky game," he commented which she replied with uneasy laugh. "That's why I was surprised that you chose me," said him as a matter of fact.

Krista was glad he couldn't make out of her blushing face.

"What do you want to do?" he asked uncertain. They would expect them to do something outrageous…

Krista was struggling to come up with something, just like the good girl she was. But nothing came out of her mouth and suddenly she began to feel tired.

She blinked a few times, trying to get her eyes adjusted to the dark, but the darkness only grew bigger. She stared at it with empty eyes, suddenly feeling swallowed by an unknown emotion.

Being a good girl sure was tiring. Always put other's need before her that what she wanted wasn't matter anymore. How come she didn't see it all this time? She wanted a lot of things… but she was unsure. Shed her innocence and perhaps she could see more clearly…

Armin cleared his throat. He has been waiting and was getting no reply from his opponent...

"Whatever you want to do is fine by me."

He sat straight hearing her words. There was something dark in her voice, unlike her usual bright self. Did she just say that he could take advantage of her…

Armin clenched his fist. Sweat formed on his forehead. He was unsure he was feeling hot either because of their proximity or her recent promiscuous words. Shaking his head, he tried to take a grip of himself.

"This is Krista, his fellow trainee… whom everyone dubbed a Goddess… the prettiest girl he has ever known… who asked him to take control… to stop being a gentleman for once…

She was still busy talking to herself, not realizing he had moved closer. At first she felt he leaned in forward. Their forehead bumped gently into each other. His long fingers made his way into hers, tangling softly. She could hear the sound of heart beat so deafening to the point she couldn't hear anything else anymore.

Then something must have snapped within him, because in a second he cornered her and landed his mouth hard on hers. Not ready for the assault, she tried to push him away. He expertly gripped her hands and pinned them to her back, deepening the kiss. She blinked tears. He was unexpectedly strong for someone with lithe stature.

When the closet was opened, they found the blond pair was sitting at their corners respectively. There was no sign of forced making out. In fact they both looked as if they had stayed unmoved from their corner.

"They did nothing!" came disappointed (and some relieved) voice from 104th male trainee.

"That's Armin for you," Reiner came and extended his hand to help him come out. "He respects the lady!"

"He might be even more scared than Krista so he was unable to do anything, right Armin?" Connie teased, grinning.

"That's a gentleman, Connie! Gen-tle-man! Remember that!" the big guy said sternly beside the silent, smiling blond.

For the rest of the evening, Krista smiled like her usual self. An hour later, she excused herself to bed after telling Ymir to watch over slightly drunken Sasha.

Walking by herself, as she passed through a certain table, a pair of cold eyes drilled a hole behind her head. She had a feeling that the dark-haired boy was watching her… and the way he looked was full of accusations, effectively putting her into shame…

"Eren!"

Somebody called his name. And just like that, she could no longer feel that sharp gaze on her. Breathing in relief, she kept on walking.


	2. Chapter 2

Attack on Titan © Isayama Hajime

Krista stumbled into the girl's cabin with uneasy feeling on her stomach.

Not feeling well, the small girl decided to visit infirmary immediately. It took a lot effort and willpower to keep on walking. At one point she even contemplated to go back to the party, asking Ymir or Sasha for help, but the thought of running into a certain blond boy over there was enough to change her mind.

Clutching her stomach, Krista stopped midway as a dark-haired boy appeared on her field of vision. He was looking at her all funny again.

Krista cringed. She wasn't ready for this.

"What's wrong?" He approached her.

"I… I'm fine. I just need to see the nurse…"

Eren looked at her unconvincingly. Clearly she wouldn't make it into the infirmary all by herself…

Krista almost jumped when he put an arm around her waist and easily scooped her up with another arm placed under her knees. She was too weak to argue so she didn't say any words when he began to walk, carrying her as if she was a child.

How weird, she thought after a while. Contrary to his usual cold demeanor towards her, his body temperature was warm and comfortably inviting. Instead of feeling timid, she felt safe and relax on his arms.

Her eyes fluttered heavily when she heard him speaking. "Hey, don't sleep… We are about to arrive..."

The infirmary building was right in front of them. Eren halted his steps as he felt his collar was being tugged softly.

"I can manage by myself from here," whispered pale-faced Krista.

He complied and put her down gently. The girl supported herself carefully, small hands wrapped around his neck. Then she turned on her feet with her back facing him. The boy watched her back for two seconds before he began to notice a red spot on her upper skirt.

"You get blood on your skirt."

Krista froze on her spot, forgetting her pain. She slowly craned her neck to look at him, wondering whether he was joking. Considering his tone was down flat when he announced the news to her, it might as well be another talk about the weather and not a girl's period…

The dark-haired boy was looking calm as if nothing had bothered him. Then it struck her. Given his clueless nature, Eren might not have had any idea about the nature of the blood, leave alone a period...

Now it was her turn to panic as she inspected her skirt in haste. There it was. The thing she has been waiting for the last three years… the source of her misery and angst…

Krista tried her best to keep her poker face.

"Eren…" Her voice was very low and husky. "Please keep this to yourself…

"Huh?" His eyebrows knitted confusedly. "That I help you to go to the infirmary?"

"N—n-no!" She shook his head hard. Nervously biting her lip, she saw him looking straight to her, demanding explanation.

"I-I mean THIS!" she unceremoniously gestured to her back where the spot was. Her cheeks turned into crimson, couldn't believe the situation she got into.

"They stared at each other for a full minute. Eren was the first who abruptly broke their eye contacts. Cheeks were blushing hard, rivaling that of hers. Finally it dawned upon him...

Krista was about to say something to end the awkward silence between them, when she felt something was thrown onto her. Eren's cardigan landed with a plop on top of her head.

"Cover it up, will you?" he called up before dashing to where he was coming from. He disappeared into the dark in no time.

Krista let his cardigan to slide onto the floor. Her mind was crowded with thoughts but she needed to go inside first. She took the soft fabric and tied it around her hip, noting that his body warmth was still there.


	3. Chapter 3

Attack on Titan © Isayama Hajime

"Krista, look." Mina leaned into her. "Armin is checking you out."

Sasha was too quick to respond by looking at Armin's direction and confirmed loudly. "Oh yeah! There is Armin!"

The said boy hurriedly turned his head away at the mention of his name. Blushed a little as he has been found out.

"Shh! You are too loud, Sasha!" Minna elbowed her in friendly manner. "At this rate he won't have courage to face us later. Poor guy…"

"Franz told me that the guys kept teasing him for being a boy scout," chimed in Hannah. "You know the whole 'any normal guy in that situation would try to do something to the girl, unless that's Armin'." She was referring to 7-minutes-in-heaven game they played the day before.

Krista hoped her smile didn't reveal any sardonic edge her inside was. The role model Boy Scout had been another naughty boy who went boy gone wild on her. The only proof that had happened was bruises on her wrists that began to fade.

"Now I see why you picked him to play the game with." Mina winked at her. "Someone like Armin sure makes the girls feel safe. He is very far from those big, bad wolf guy stereotype."

"Hah! A guy will still be a guy!" Ymir interjected. "He must have something dirty on his mind, only didn't have enough balls to do it! You better avoid that little creep, Krista!"

"Ymir, you are so bad!" Mina laughed heartedly with the girls followed her along shortly.

Soon their laughter died into an awkward silence when they suddenly realized Mikasa standing rigidly at the corner of their table. She had definitely overheard their conversation. The whole table gulped nervously, except for Ymir who found the situation amusing.

"Hi Mikasa! We didn't see you there!" greeted Hannah. "We were talking about Armin, you know…"

"Ye… yeah! So what do you think about Armin? Is he always so timid around girls?" Mina quickly jumped, seeing her friend faltered under Mikasa's judging eyes.

The girl with red scarf looked at Krista before placing her eyes on Mina. "He is very shy…" Then her intimidating gaze was directed to Ymir. "But that doesn't mean he is not manly enough to fight when it's necessary."

Ymir raised an eyebrow in response. Feeling the tension thickened, the girls shifted uncomfortably on their seats. Their eyes took turn from glancing at unfazed Ymir to intense-looking Mikasa.

"Oi Eren! What's wrong with your head!" Jean's loud voice broke the staring contest, driving people's attention right away.

"Eren and Jean fight again," muttered someone.

"Why is he getting wet?" Sasha pointed at Armin. "I thought the fight was between Jean and Eren!"

The girls stared at the watermark on Armin's uniform. There were trail of water and a broken glass near his feet. The object of their examination was calmly standing still as if nothing had happened.

"Beat me. He might try to play hero and get in the middle of their fight," guessed Ymir with a shrug. "Serve him right."

Krista noticed Armin... Jean... Marco... Connie... but no sign of Eren. She frantically scanned the room in an attempt to find him...

There he was!

Halfway walked to the door was Eren. There was annoyed look on his face. Mikasa who spotted him in time quickly flew to his side, abandoning her confrontation with Ymir without a second thought. Krista's eyes followed both of them until they disappeared behind the door.

* * *

"Oh yeah! There is Armin!"

Armin dunked his head in shame. Sasha's cheerful voice made the other tables turning eyes on his direction.

That was uncharacteristically for him to leer at a girl first thing in the morning… Well, the girl he had his first kiss with was not just a girl on his book, he reluctantly admitted.

From the corner of his eyes, he took another glance at Krista. This time in caution and not as openly as before. All the while his observant side began to question.

What was it with this sudden… Curiosity? Clinginess? Possessiveness? Obsession?

The intelligent boy scratched all of them in frustration, failing to come up with proper term to address the problem. He wondered whether this unfamiliar feeling was due to attraction or just pure euphoria of post-first kiss.

A hard slap on his back woke Armin from his train of thoughts. Rubbing the sore spot, he looked at Connie who was grinning from ear to ear. "So… you still daydreaming about your time at the closet with Krista?"

Hearing the question, Thomas who passed their table with a tray of food chided in, "Boy scout's honor, duh!" The boys snickered, fully understanding what it meant.

Jean plopped at the empty seat beside Armin along with Marco. "Beside all their nasty remarks, I don't believe you did nothing during those 7 minutes though."

"As if you have a lot of experience," scoffed Eren earning a glare from his opponent. "Can you believe anything coming out from the horse's mouth?"

"Nobody asked for your opinion, bastard!" Jean snapped. "At least I know what I'm talking about!"

"Please, Jean, Eren…" Marco decided to come in between.

"Horse face just implied that you are a pervert. Are you okay with that, Armin?"

In response to that question, the blond boy just flushed.

"No offense, Armin. Jean has this theory that when you put a boy and a girl in compromising situation, something bound to happen. At least one of them will try something," Marco added in for good measure.

"That makes sense!" Connie looked at Jean with newfound respect. "Especially if the girl is a babe like Krista!"

"I'm finished so I'll be joining Sasha and the others," announced Mikasa all of sudden, ignoring Armin's subtle S.O.S. signal.

"Good luck," she mouthed off before getting up and leaving him in the mercy of Jean and Connie.

Jean's bright eyes dimmed a notch as he keeping his eyes on Mikasa's retreating figure. Connie on the other hand, lit up like Christmas, figuring one less obstacle to deal with. "From here on is strictly guys! So you better spill!"

"N-nothing of that sort!" Armin exclaimed too fast, which made him appearing more suspicious than he intended.

"Ghhhh! He is lying, Jean!"

"I don't buy it too! There's got to be something you hide!" Jean insisted.

"If you don't believe me, why don't you ask Krista then?" Armin used the last resort he could think of. Knowing he couldn't possibly play dumb forever might as well pass the baton. Besides, he was certain that his interrogators wouldn't have the courage to ambush the girl the way they did to him now.

"No need for that. I bet she's being questioned by her own crowd." Jean jutted his chin to the direction of Krista's table. "So you better answer to us or I will let them to come after you."

Armin began to sweat, desperately looking around for anybody to save him. Marco sent him apologetic look. Reiner was nowhere to be seen. Eren…! He almost forgot his best friend was present since the hotheaded teen was turning quiet in the middle of the conversation, barely made a sound.

Still baffling, Armin turned his head to face him, only to be stunned.

Eren shot him an accusatory glance. An uneasy feeling started to grow on the pit of his stomach. Armin would never consider that his childhood friend could feel anything but that toward him...

Eren was jealous of him for the first time…

Because Krista had picked him to play a silly game…

What a bad joke…

He felt like he had to laugh.

* * *

Apparently Marco read Armin's silence as the sign of distressed. The freckled guy cleared his throat and put each of his hands on Jean and Connie's shoulders. "Guys, stop badgering Armin. If he doesn't want to talk, you can't force him. It's his privacy after all."

"But-!"

"Marco, you…!"

Jean and Connie hadn't had chance to protest as Marco quickly dragged both of them away from Armin. When they'd been far enough not to hear what he was about to say, Armin decided to come clean.

"Eren, are you angry at me?"

"Don't be stupid. Angry for what?" he laughed lightly. His eyes spoke differently, betraying his charade.

"Aren't you curious about what happened?"

"Putting it bluntly like that was the only way Armin knew to make Eren cut the crap. At first Eren stared hard at him. He was about to say something then changed his mind and sighed, "You get the wrong person to confess. It's none of my…"

"We kissed," cut Armin swiftly.

The dark-haired boy blinked. Once. Twice. And he knocked the glass on Armin's hand, splashing the content onto Armin's uniform. Just like that, he turned and walked away without saying anything.


	4. Chapter 4

**_Attack on Titan © Isayama Hajime_**

Class wouldn't start in another hour, but Krista didn't mind. She just needed an excuse to get outside. Ymir was walking beside her, her brows furrowed in deep thinking.

"I have to admit, Mikasa was right." Suddenly she began with voice dripping of sarcasm. "That little creep does have some gut."

Sensing whom she was talking about, Krista stopped moving altogether.

"You were acting funny after that stupid game. Turned out it was more serious than I thought." The freckled girl held Krista's wrist up exposing faded blue marks. "These bruises are from him, correct?"

Knowing how sharp Ymir could be, it would be useless to lie, so she nodded right away.

"Before at the table, I didn't say anything seeing how edgy you were when Mina brought it up. You…"

"I'm fine though. See?" interrupted Krista, forcing herself to smile.

The other girl scoffed off rather rudely. "How noble of you to suffer in silence. You really are a goddess to let this one slide..." Eyeing the bruises, she scrunched her nose. "Or a truly masochist."

Krista smiled weakly on her friend's snide remark. She didn't hold anything against Armin, chalking the closet incident as a bad luck. Ymir, however, didn't think so.

Krista clearly didn't expect her bunk partner to go violent on one-on-one combat training that afternoon. And it wasn't a coincidence since the freckled girl got the blond boy as sparring partner.

Easily overpowered her opponent, Ymir didn't hold her punch, even as the boy already down on his knees. Had the head instructor not arrived on time, things would have gotten out of control. Keith Shadis yelled for the rest of them to keep on with their training, then ordered Eren and Mikasa to bring Armin to get treatment.

"You," he mentioned to Ymir. "To my office! Now!"

Krista watched in worry as Ymir followed behind the man. The tall girl didn't look sorry at all, not even the slightest.

* * *

"I will settle things with Ymir later," announced Mikasa, breaking the silence. Eren only glanced at her with indifferent look before resuming to look down again. His lack of response started to drive her mad by the seconds. "Eren, say something."

She sighed in exasperation when she got nothing from him and was about to give up when he finally came around.

"Ymir must have a good reason to beat him," Eren said with impassive gaze.

God. When he opened his mouth, he only drawled in riddles... She had to do something about that.

"What did you fight about with Armin at the dining hall?"

Great. He was mute again.

"Was it about Krista?"

He flinched at the mention of her name.

"Am I right?" There was almost a satisfaction tone on her voice.

"What non-sense are you talking about?" Eren retorted heatedly. "Did you knock your head during the training class?"

"I'm not stupid, Eren. I notice the way you look at her." Given her observant nature toward Eren, Mikasa had already picked up things along the way. Like how his eyes always lingered a few seconds longer on said blonde girl, for one. "You seem to like her."

Upon hearing the blunt statement, the brunette girl swore her childhood friend became tense before masking it in nonchalant manner.

"Well, Eren?" she pressed.

"I like everybody the same, except for horse face," he deadpanned.

Mikasa almost rolled her eyes. He shouldn't beat around the bush and just answer if he really had nothing going on with the short girl… Eren could be so proud and ignorant sometimes and this time, no doubt, was one of them.

Honestly she was surprised to find herself feeling curious rather than jealous. The fact that Eren might have feeling to another girl really put a new perspective into her. Suddenly it became clear, that all of these years, her feeling for him could have been no more than of a big sister to her little brother and not a romantic one.

"You guys can come inside now," the doctor let them know. "He has fracture on his arm. But other than that, he should be fine."

Mikasa silently noted a look of relief washed over Eren. True the boy had a temper, but he definitely couldn't stay mad for a very long time. After all Armin was an important friend for him.

"Let's go, Eren." Taking in his hesitant look, she added firmly, "I'm sure Armin wants to talk with you."

"Better do this sooner then," he grumbled and began to move.

As Mikasa trailing behind him, a thought of concern began to form. There was the possibility that Armin might have crush on the same girl… It won't end up pretty she grimaced mentally. Today was the proof of that.


	5. Chapter 5

**_Attack on Titan_** ** _© Isayama Hajime_**

This was the fourth day of her period. She supposed to feel better, not still wincing in pain. And today's training couldn't be better. It took place inside the forest and required a lot of physical actions such as running, flying, and slashing titan dummies as many as they could.

What a bad luck she had to endure it under her delicate condition. The universe seemed to play a cruel joke as well by placing her on a team full of testosterones. With her to be the only female, there was nobody she could turn to for support in regard of her discomfort.

"Krista, you look pale!" Jean was eyeing her in concern.

"Should we slow down?" Connie offered.

"I… I'm fine. Let's keep going." Krista forced a smile. The idea of holding her teammates sent a pang of guilt inside her heart.

The only one who didn't bother to care was Eren. He kept on going with steady speed in front of them with clear goal on mind: to finish the training with impeccable result.

The next twenty minutes had passed with no target in sight. They were fully aware of the prospect of wasting gas so they decided to come up with a new plan: split into two groups and head to opposite directions to find more dummies.

Connie and Jean had insisted to be paired up with Krista. Eren knew exactly what was inside their freaky heads which he grew weary of. He almost got into heated argument had Krista not stepped in and declared that it would be best for her to go with him. She met with disappointed stares from the duo and no objection from Eren.

"We should walk to save the gas," she had suggested before they took off. She had other reason in mind, like not upsetting her stomach from unnecessary leaping and swinging. Soon, they went on separate way with a spot near the river as rendezvous point.

Eren led the way with Krista following a few steps behind. Other than random grunts, he wasn't very talkative. She felt a let down. As on their last encounter, he had been kindly enough to help her, naturally she had expected him to be nicer now, or at least, more civilized towards her. Contrary to that he seemed not interested to articulate any coherent sentence, which was a basic courtesy to acknowledge her as another human being.

Suddenly recalled she still had his article of clothing as well, she determined to start a conversation.

"E-Eren, a few days ago, you helped me to the infirmary… A-And I haven't said a proper thank you…" she said between gasps of breath, trying to keep up with his fast pace. "… And also…"

Eren stopped all of the sudden and turned to her with a cold look that conveyed he'd rather keep on walking than listening to her bumbling nonsense.

Krista could sense the air of resentment and held her breath. She couldn't possibly tell what he was thinking. His face was a mixture of annoyance and impatience. What had gone wrong?

* * *

Eren had implored to leave her on her own device. That was exactly what he felt like doing. He was not here to sweep Krista Lenz off her feet. The cold treatment he gave her was a part of his way to show that he blamed her for what happened with Armin.

"Armin told me about that stupid game. He ended up with fractured arm thanks to you." And Ymir, he gritted his teeth. "I know he was partial to blame. But it's not on his nature to just brazenly assault a girl..."

He glared at her with such intensity. "…Unless you provoke him first, which you did, didn't you?"

Krista looked away in shame. Face flushed, hands shaking. Still, it wasn't enough to stop him, though.

"You were fully aware putting yourself in that kind of situation." He moved forward, bringing himself closer to the trembling girl. "Can't blame the guy for trying, I guess."

"Please stop, Eren…" Tears started to well on the corner of her eyes. The truth hurt more than she thought…

"Do you really believe you are that innocent?"

That brought Krista on her knees, choking on her own breath. She tried so hard to hold back her tears but failed miserably. Drop by drop came rolling and she wiped them hard.

"Should I be worried that Ymir will come after me?" Eren asked with voice devoid of emotion, undeterred by her tears. "I don't want to end up like Armin when she finds out that I make you cry."

Damn Eren and his mouth. She knew he was a jerk, but obviously a better jerk when he didn't let his mouth running. He had pushed her sensitive button: her unnatural kindness, her goddess complex and he didn't even known when to stop...

Biting her inside cheek, Krista stood up abruptly and pushed him. She was meant to shove him but her rather smaller than average physique lacked the power to do so. Instead of accomplishing her objection, the small girl only managed to exhaust herself. In the end, she hit him hard on the chest.

Eren flinched a bit, but didn't do anything to stop her.

"I am so sick of you and your not-giving-a-shit-attitude," she muttered in defeat.


End file.
